Resby Coutts (centre) presented Riverview Curling Club’s Mona Hammond (left) and Pat MacKenzie (right) with a Bob Picken Junior Legacy Fund grant.
For Immediate Release: November 29, 2019
The junior curling programs at Winnipeg’s Thistle Curling Club as well as at the Brandon Riverview Curling club and Oakville Curling Club are the 2019 recipients of the Bob Picken Junior Legacy Fund grants.
The establishment of the grants was identified as the legacy project of the BOB PICKEN VALOUR ROAD MASTERS BONSPIEL held earlier this year at Thistle.
“We are pleased to be able to support the effort of the club volunteers in these three clubs to help our sport grow and specifically to give their juniors a good start,” says bonspiel co-chair Brian Kushner.
“We are committed to providing two grants, of $500 each, every year but we are making three grants this year because we had a very successful bonspiel, which attracted 30 entries in late-September, along with direct contributions to the legacy fund from a number of the competitors,” explains bonspiel co-chair Bob Minaker.
The three junior programs, which the Bob Picken Junior Legacy Fund will support this year, are excellent examples of emerging or developing junior programs, which the bonspiel organizers stated from the outset as their target for support.
Thanks to CurlManitoba’s assistance in helping the committee to publicize the bonspiel and the legacy grant program, twenty applications were received from across the province.
“It is a privilege to be a part of recognizing the great contributions which were made to curling by Bob Picken over his career and we think the committee’s objective of using the legacy fund to support junior programs is a great way to honour him,” says CurlManitoba Executive Director Craig Baker.
A summary of the three junior programs receiving 2019 Bob Picken Junior Legacy Fund grants follows.
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RIVERVIEW CURLING CLUB – BRANDON
An established program for 6-10 year olds has been expanded this year to include an advanced junior program for those over 10 years of age. Funding will be used for replacement of ‘tired’ equipment and to acquire new training aids for the program.
THISTLE CURLING CLUB – WINNIPEG
A new program was established this year and has attracted 17 youngsters between the ages of 7 and 13. With limited equipment available, the funding will be used to acquire curling equipment and to construct a movable hack system to shorten the ice for the younger beginning curlers.
OAKVILLE CURLING CLUB
In support of a school initiative to establish a curling module in the Grade 5-8 physical education classes, the club will establish an after-school junior program for as many as 78 possible participants with an end-of-season wind-up/bonspiel. The funding will be used to acquire equipment to be stored at the curling club for use by all participants in the program now and in the future.
